Being the Father of a Half Ghost is Confusing!
by Trudyann B. -formerly weirdIT
Summary: Jack realizes what he’s been missing all these years, and decides to change, but will his ‘changing’ push him into finding out Danny’s Secret?
1. Prolouge

Being the Father of a Half Ghost is Confusing! 

**Full Summary: **Jack realizes what he's been missing all these years, and decides to change, but will his 'changing' push him into finding out Danny's Secret?

**Rating:**K+

**Solid POV:** Jack

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Danny Phantom… Or six flags… or Disney World… or Wal-Mart… or K-Mart… or a lemming… I don't even own a freakin' lawyer! Please don't arrest me…

---------------------------------------------

**Prologue**

_Flashback_

_I woke up to big blue eyes staring at me in the dark._

"_Great Gobs of Ghost goo!" I sat up, more than a bit surprised. _

"_Daddy, I had a ghostie nightmare." I looked to my four-year-old son, His eyes still fixed on my face, holding a Pac-Man style ghost doll in his arms. I couldn't help but smile. _

"_Come in bed, son. Daddy will scare away all those scary ghosties in your dreams."_

_End Flashback_

I sighed, waking from my daydream. They've all gotta grow up sometime. I repeated my mantra. They've all gotta grow up sometime…

PROLOUGE END

A/n: Yes, extremely short beginning, but it's a prologue… I usually make my chapters much longer, so please don't get mad at me! Oh and review pleases! I'll update faster with the more reviews I get! Promise!


	2. Please read An before reading!

A/n: OGOD! I MADE A HUGE MISTAKE! This story was already written, but I lost half of it, even though it was saved! I could never write it all back! It was way too much to remember! I'm afraid I'm gonna have to cancel the story! I hate doing this! I mean, I really hate it! But it won't work. SO INCREADIBLY SORRY:'(

Here's the rest of the story that was saved, if you really want to read it, but you won't like the ending being so abrupt and unsatisfying. It doesn't even get to the part where Jack finds out! But I don't post author's notes without chapters so, here ya go. I'm deleting the story in a few days.

Chapter 1- How could I be so ignorant? 

I played with my action figures; my mind on other things. How did it all fall apart like this? How did I get so caught up in my Job to fall so far apart from my family's needs? Ghosts are all I know about anymore.

I'd come to this realization just last night. I finally understood what Maddie felt like. And though when I was around people I quickly hid my feelings, they popped back up every time I sat down to do something alone. This was a bad habit of mine for ten years now. Ever since the incident with that one ghost when Danny was four and Jazz was six. Jazz had gotten so much smarter since then. She'd always read faster and such; I always wondered where she'd gotten it; probably her mother. I sighed a depressed sigh until Danny came into the room, looking completely exhausted. I looked up, my bad habit taking the best of me.

"Hey, Son!" I said in a cheery voice. "How was your day at school?" He flinched at my sudden outburst. "More importantly, do you want to see our new invention!" He looked at me in a 'please don't' expression that I never noticed before. It's amazing what you see when you stop being ignorant of the world around you. I sat back down, fighting to express something other than a huge grin. He must've noticed I was trying to fight something in my head because I could see three expressions on his face: one of confusion, one of worry, and… was that relief? My inside depression grew, but I couldn't help myself from going anywhere lower than a strait face. I couldn't frown unless there was an invention of mine that didn't work, or a ghost was around especially when they're trying to hurt the ones I love. That was the kind that made me really angry. Like that Danny Phantom ghost. He was the only ghost that I couldn't figure anything about, And I've found him attacking good people, like the Mayor, or even more, Jazz; and yet, he seemed to claim he was a good guy. Why would he be dumb enough to try to fool us, when he was clearly a smart ghost? How else would he be able to hide from us like this? I managed to give a slight frown in my thoughts. Danny sat down next to me, still a bit exhausted for some reason, but worry, the dominant on his face.

"You okay, Dad?" He asked, his voice full of concern. I looked at his face and, closer up, noticed a scar on his cheek. I suddenly forgot about my own thoughts, and turned my attention to his injury. It was time to make a change. It was time to care for my family.

"Danny… What happened to your face?" I tried to sound loving, but it was harder than I remember. I felt it, but it seemed harder to express it. His sudden reaction startled me a little, as his hand moved lightning fast and covered the small wound.

"Oh, it's nothing." I heard a major change of tone from worry to squeaky nervousness. I raised my eyebrow. "Uh. I've gotta go do… stuff." He said and before I could spare him one more look of confusion, he had rocketed upstairs. I blinked in dismay. _What was that all about?_ I thought but this was a train of thought that led me back to my original problem_. I need to spend more time with my family_. And before long, I fell back into my original slump. _Why did I have to be so ignorant?_ I thought, just in time to be disturbed from my thoughts once more.

"Honey? Is something wrong?" I heard the voice of my wonderful wife. I smiled a tad, knowing my spouse would know where I was coming from.

"Maddie… You know how you and Danny had that bonding trip?" Her expression darkened, but brightened at the same time, leaving the odd appearance of someone with amnesia who just figured out they were constipated. She cloaked her expression with a small smile that hardly reached her eyes.

"You mean that visit to… Dalv?" she asked in a fake cheery voice.

"Uhh… Ya." I stumbled. "I thought maybe we could have a weekend like that again, only… reversed."

"Reversed?"

"You know… Danny stays with me, and you go with Jazz…" I clarified.

"Oh! That sounds wonderful!" she cheered. "I'll go ask Jazz, and you'll ask Danny!" she ran up the stairs, obviously excited. I sighed. What was I thinking? I hardly know my Son. How am I supposed to entertain him for a whole weekend? I know! I'll babble on about gho… I mentally slapped myself. It was time to change. Time to bond. I looked down to the Lab. The eerie green glow of the ghost portal attracted me to invent something. I'll start tomorrow, I thought quickly, and I slipped down to the Lab to begin my project, and hopefully end it before midnight, when my goal was set to begin.

Dream Sequence 

(I thought I woke up from a drooling sleep in the lab…) I wiped the crusty, dried spit from my mouth as I looked to the portal. I found myself attracted by it, mystified by its green, swirling contents. I closed my eyes and dived into a cool fluff around me. As I fell, I realized all the shapes flying up around me. I looked down, seeing the ground rush up at me. I tightened my eyes, heart beating, ready for ground contact, when I felt nothing. I opened them once more. I found that I had landed softly on the ground. I looked around at the barren landscape, and shivered in the cool feeling of the place.

"No wonder ghosts want to escape from this place," I thought out loud. "There's no fudge anywhere."

I decided that there was nothing better to do but walk until I found something interesting, so I started to walk. I eventually realized that I was lead nowhere by the seemingly useless path. Then the ghost boy came and smashed into the ground with an incredible force. He was struggling to sit up, the perfect time to nail him. But as I reached into my pocket (which lead to a pouch formed by a rip in the space time continuum, where I kept all my ghost hunting equipment.) for a gun or something, I felt nothing but a regular pocket with nothing in it. I watched as Phantom turned his attention to me.

"Da… Jack?" He asked, clearly in confusion. "What are you doing in the ghost zone?"

I shook my head.

"I don't kno…" But I was cut off by a sudden blast out of the boy's hands as I heard a scream of pain. I looked up. It was a pitch black, formless ghost, or as a ghost hunter would say, a 'case 34526.' I watched the hole from the blast around the stomach area, close back up, like it was never there in the first place. This would make it a 'case 345269.'

"STROBE LIGHTS!" The ghost boy yelled. I followed his gaze to two teens in… _Was that the SPECTER SPEEDER! _I squinted, but before I could clarify, a huge flash of strobe lights came from the large metal object, resulting as the ghost was obliterated into a sort of vapor. _A shadow ghost!_ I thought_. 'Case 3452690!' Probably with a master._ I looked up again, and squinted once more. Yes. This was defiantly the specter speeder. I was about to yell, when I felt a cold hand grab my neck on a sensitive pressure point. I looked to the root of the hand, just to see a concerned ghost boy's face, before I fell into unconsciousness.

End of Dream sequence 

I woke up in my bed. This was weird, because I remembered falling asleep in the lab on top of my invention. I got up, stretched and decided to go down to the Lab and check on my invention. As I picked it up, I noticed some wires seemed to have shorted out, dry crust on the ends of them. I wiped it off, realizing it was none other than dried saliva. I picked up a screwdriver when I remembered my goal, to think more about my family than ghost hunting. I drooped my head sadly, until the ghost portal caught my eye once more. My mind flickered to the dream I had last night. It was so strange. Suddenly a yawning Danny interrupted my thoughts.

"Hiya, Son!" I said, taking up my cheery manner once more.

"Hey…" he said sleepily. "Mom said you wanted to ask me something." He stretched and yawned again.

"Danny, you look exhausted!" I remarked. He just stared at me, his eyes only half open. "Anyway, yes, I wanted to ask you if you were up for a bonding trip with me this weekend." His eyes widened. He opened his mouth to say something, when he gasped. He suddenly covered his mouth, said, "I'll think about it!" and sprinted up the stairs, almost leaving a dust cloud behind him. I slumped down, getting back to my thoughts, as I was mesmerized once more by the swirling mist of the ghost zone, it all seemed so… real.

**Chapter 2- Bonding, huh?**

Was that Dream real? No. It couldn't be. How could the ghost boy get his hands on the specter speeder? I shook it off. If only I could go in there. See if the dream was real. Then I heard a crash from outside. I ran up the stairs, making sure that my pocket was now filled with ghost weapons.

"How can such an annoying, incapable ghost like you, cause so much damage!"

I heard from outside. I looked out the window to hear the next phrase.

"Beware, for I am the Box Ghost! And you may not call me annoying, for I am not inc… incap…"

"Incapable?" Phantom said, looking annoyed.

"Yes! Incapable!- OOF!" He was hit with a blast from the ghost boy, who sucked him up in a thermos almost simultaneously. Hey! Where'd he get a Fenton thermos! He flew over the house. I watched, a bit too stunned to move. Why would he trap one of his own kind? I sighed. And went back down to the Lab, but I stopped halfway down the stairs, when I saw the ghost boy in front of the portal, the Fenton thermos in his hand. He looked at me. I could see a mix of annoyance, and anxiety on his face. He quickly put the Fenton thermos in the slot to empty it, still looking at me. He pressed the release button, took the thermos, and flew up, through the ceiling and away, not giving me a second chance to do it right and blast him to smithereens!

I sighed, and slumped up to Danny's room to ask him where he wanted to go.

"I don't know…" He said, laying on his bed.

"We could go anywhere. Just somewhere." I said. I needed to prove to myself that I was able to focus on other things. "Danny, please, I'm trying to…" Danny sat up; his face changed from boredom to slight worry. "I just want to…" He blinked at me. "Change." He seemed to be panicked, like he didn't know what to do, as I frowned and lowered my eyelids. He sighed.

"I guess we could do something…" I perked up immediately.

"Really!" He sighed.

"Really."

"All right!" I marched out of the room and closed the door. But then I slapped my forehead. I'd forgotten to ask where he wanted to go! I peeked my head back in. He slowly exhaled when I left, but quickly inhaled at my partial return, which obviously threw him off sides. "Uhh… where do you want to go?" He quickly gathered himself.

"Umm… how about… Twelve Flags?"

"Right! Sure… What's Twelve Flags?" He rolled his eyes.

"It's a theme park." I nodded and took my head from the door, closing it, and hearing another large exhale from the other side.

"Eighty-eight bottles of ectoplasmic residue on the wall, eighty- eight bottles of ectoplasmic residue, ya take one down, test it around eighty seven bottles of ectoplasmic residue on the wall!" I sang cheerfully. Danny in the back, holding on for dear life, though I'm not sure why, _I mean everything is going grea…_

"Watch out for that CURB!" He shouted. I quickly took my eyes off the rear view mirror and navigated away from the curb. I could hear a sigh of relief from the back. I started singing again, as Danny just sat there, still afraid to let go of the seat.

"Aww… C'mon, Danny, sing with me!" I started singing again, but he still did not. It felt useless. Then Danny gasped the same way he did last time we were in the Lab, and I was asking him about the bonding trip. I saw a black blur in the rear view mirror. The engine then whirred. I quickly pulled over; a bit too quickly, because the next second, we crashed into a tree. I saw flame burst up from the front, followed by a white bag in my face, and an overwhelming flash in the back. I felt myself get tense, and then weak, like I might loose consciousness soon. My vision blurred, and I started to sweat from the heat of the flame spreading. I felt cold hands lift me through the roof, as I looked at them, I saw silver gloves on each. I was put on the grass, where I lay, listening to blasts and such, as my vision got blurrier and blurrier, until it finally faded out, but the last thing I heard was my son's voice, echoing in my head.

"Dad? DAD?" I passed out.

When I woke up, I still couldn't see very well. I was back in my bed, at home. Danny and Jazz were standing over me.

"Dad! You're okay!" They both said together, each giving me a huge hug. I smiled.

"What happened?" I asked, feeling an icepack on my forehead.

"We crashed, and then I…" Danny started, but then hesitated, "Danny Phantom came and got us both out of the car, and flew us home! It was incredible!" I looked at his expression; it didn't exactly match his tone. He looked more depressed than amazed. I switched my attention to Jazz.

"We thanked him and gave you an icepack and such. Mom's downstairs making some toast and scrambled eggs."

"Well, so much for our bonding trip." I said disappointed.

"That's okay. I'm sure we can do something next weekend." Danny consoled. I smiled again and turned on my side, closing my eyes.

The week passed uneventfully. I mostly just sat in bed, healing from my head ach, and the small amount of trauma I had gotten. What confused me is that Danny acted like nothing had happened, and when I asked him how he could be so calm, I swear he mumbled something like "I'm used to it." But when I asked him what he said he just shrugged and told me to get some rest. Another thing that confused me was the kids' story of how we were saved. Before they told me, I still thought Danny Phantom was evil, but then I was told the story of how he saved my life, as well as my son's. I was still disbelieving, and when I asked Maddie, she told me that she didn't exactly trust the ghost boy either, because Jazz answered the door, and when she called her in, it was just Jazz, and Danny, and they carried me up to the bed, and asked her to make something for him to eat when I woke up, but she also made the point, that, she didn't think Danny could carry me all the way back home that far, by himself, so she was forced to bring the ghost boy story into consideration. No matter; soon enough it was the weekend, and Danny and I decided on a simple day at the pier, and an evening of bowling.

The pier was amazingly fun! We bought some cotton candy, went on roller coasters, and feasted on fudge. Lots, and lots of fudge! We even ate some of those Curley's fries, which are possibly better than any other fries in the world to date; especially with vinegar. We eventually got to the bowling alley, got our shoes, and sat down for a good hour of bowling, when Danny gasped unexpectedly. This time, I saw closer up, and noticed that it looked like breath outside in the winter, with a very minor tinge of blue. I looked at him, confused, as he returned my stare as one of anxiety. Once a ghost came right into the bowling alley, one that previously, if I remember correctly, was called the annoying box ghost. Everyone in the room bolted except for me and…

"Danny, where are you going! You come back here right now, this is the perfect time for you to learn something about ghost hunting!" I scolded. He turned to look at me, then at the ghost, and came running back.

"Fine." He said. The ghost was stupidly staring at the scene, forgetting he was part of it. I handed Danny a blaster.

"Now, ya wanna nail 'im right between the… Woa!" before I could instruct Danny to do anything, he'd already aimed and fired, hitting the ghost right in the sternum. "Danny! Where'd ya learn to shoo…" He cut me off by pulling a Fenton thermos out of nowhere and sucking the ghost into it. I marveled at his fine talent, which was never even taught to him. _When did he learn to do that?_ I thought. Then I saw the Fenton thermos again. I never remember when it started working, but apparently sometime… _But where'd he get it?_ Actually, last time I saw it, it was in the ghost boy's hand.

"Danny, where did you get that Thermos?" I asked, sounding a bit more accusatory than I meant to. He laughed nervously and handed me the thermos.

"I… found it… in the lab." I nodded. I didn't believe him, but I didn't want it to get in the way of our day of bonding. So we went back to our lane, and started a game once more. I hate to say this but he beat me by… fifty points or more every game…

We did bond in the end, so much, that I asked if we could do it next weekend, and he agreed! I told Maddie all about it that night, she was also curious about how our son obtained such talent. Then she had an idea.

"Why don't we go as a family to a session of martial arts training tomorrow!" She said. I raised my eyebrow.

"Why on Earth would we do that!"

"Because, then, we could see if he's naturally talented in that as well, and if so, ask if people can have those kind of skills naturally. If not, we can start worrying, but most likely, he won't do that." I sighed, unable to contemplate what my spouse meant, but I decided to just nod, so I could get a good night's rest.

**Chapter 3**- **Martial arts, and a clue.**

"We're doing what!" was the first thing I heard from my son the next morning, as Maddie told him the news. I stood outside his bedroom door and listened.

"Now Danny, it's just a normal family outing," Maddie tried to calm him.

"I had plans with Sam and Tuck! All day!" He said, annoyed. Maddie sighed.

"It's just one day," she said.

"Rrrgg, okay, but I have to call Sam and Tuck first."

"Okay, sweetie thank you for understanding," I heard Maddie say, the door opened, and Maddie came out. She gave me a friendly smile, and went down the stairs. I knelt down on one knee, and listened in on the conversation over the phone.

"Sam? hey, listen, I can't go with you guys today… because I'm going to this last minute martial arts family bonding thing… ya, that's what I thought… ya think so?… so your saying I should act all 'off balance' so no one thinks I've had experience?" I gasped a tad loudly. "Hold on, I think Jazz is listening in on our conversations again. JAZZ! THIS DOESN'T CONCERN YOU!" He yelled. I slipped, my back hitting the door. Footsteps neared the door. I quickly heaved myself up, and started down the steps when I heard the door swing open. "Jazz, you…" He started, but cut off at the sight of me, and only me. "Dad?" He asked in a confused fashion.

"Yes, son," I said, sounding innocent. I didn't want all of yesterday to go down the drain because of my eavesdropping.

"Have you seen Jazz?"

"Why, no I haven't." His eyes shifted from left to right, and he closed the door slowly, taking a few double takes, and finally sliding it completely back into place. I exhaled. _That was close._ I thought. But what did he mean be saying he was experienced? I pondered this, but there was no explanation to be found. Soon Maddie called up that it was time to go, and I raced down, in the chance of being awarded a cookie for being prepared.

We got in the car, but this time, Maddie drove, leaving me to once again take up singing.

"Ninety nine bottles of ectoplasmic residue on the wall, ninety nine bottles of ectoplasmic residue!" I sang. Danny and Jazz sat in the back. Jazz was slaping her forehead in shame, where as Danny seemed distracted, glancing out the window every thirty seconds, and shivering a little bit.

Finally we got to the martial arts place. It was a beautiful area. It looked like an old fashioned pagoda over a small waterfall leading into a pond of lilies. Cherry blossoms surrounded the building, You could smell freedom, and good fortune in the air. Maddie got out immediately, smelling the air, stretching, and smiling. I must admit, I was impressed. I thought it would be this shaggy little karate place. Jazz looked impressed as well, as did Danny, but not as much as Jazz. I frowned. _Something is going on with Danny._ I thought. We all followed Maddie into the lobby. It had a small water fountain in the middle of the room, and a pleasant smell to it. Maddie went up to the front desk, as we sat on one of the many couches bordering the walls of the room. She conversed with the secretary, and a minute later, we were gestured to get up. We followed the black belt down the common balcony, every once and a while, going up a flight of stairs. The light hit the tall canopy of redwoods surrounding the clearing, to make the walk even more pleasant, as the interior wall was plastered with wallpaper of cherry blossom trees, and the occasional window or door. Maddie lead us into the top most room. It was an amazingly large room with a sky window as most of the roof, the occasional bird passing overhead. Maddie walked up to the other black belt in the room and gave a bow. The master bowed back. He had gray hair wrapped into a topknot and a goatee he also had a friendly smile, and wise eyes. Maddie started introductions.

"Master Keign-rowe, this is Jazz, Danny, and Jack." He nodded as Maddie gestured to each of us in turn. "Children, Jack, this is Master Keign-rowe." She said softly. "He was my teacher in martial arts." We waved; he bowed. "He's going to be teaching us the _advanced_ set." She winked at me. We all nodded.

"All right. Let's start with some meditation, shall we?" He said in a soft, low, wise voice. We all sat down, and watched as Maddie and Master Keign-rowe took position, and we copied. We took deep breaths, and I started to smell fresh air. I opened one eye, and saw that the window was open. I looked next to me, and saw Maddie eying Danny. Danny seemed perfectly in to the whole meditation thing, and so did Jazz, as they were both smiling peacefully. I closed my eyes again and started my deep breathing once more, smiling peacefully as well. This was just as relaxing as needlepoint. I dazed off into my own little world, as my mind flickered back to the dream I had the other night. I wasn't really sure it was a dream anymore. I remembered the icy cold hand, how I shivered, how it felt to dive through the portal. That's when it hit me_. How could I feel anything in a dream! It must have been real; otherwise I wouldn't be able to feel any of it!_ I grinned at my victory, and opened my eyes. The grin quickly faded as I noticed that everyone was staring at me, eyebrows fully raised. Apparently, meditation time was over.

Next were balance exercises. We were told to stand on one leg, with the other tucked up beside it, knee pointing outward. I soon fell down, as well as Jazz, but Maddie and Danny stayed perfectly balanced. But after about five minutes, that was done too. Master Keign-rowe was a bit surprised at the balance of Danny, but put it off, saying that it could just be a talent of his.

The next was stretches. Pretty boring right? Yea… boring. But after that came the exciting, interesting part. We were all hooked to a cable on a trampoline, and told to try a back flip. This would be an advanced set, but we had cords attached to belts around our wastes. Master Keign-rowe quickly demonstrated the form of a back layout, and told us to try and copy, then they would go into flip-kicks, as he plainly put it so we would understand. I started jumping. quickly followed by a potential face plant if I was not on a bungee. I looked at the rest of my family. Maddie was on the ground, doing it perfectly, since she had already been trained. Jazz was doing almost as badly as me. Though after the first three tries, she seemed to be getting it. But my eye was caught by Danny, who seemed to have a form almost as flawless as his mother's. And by the third try, it _was_ as flawless. I looked to Maddie who was gaping at him, as well as master Keign-rowe. The master cleared his voice. Danny stopped to notice everyone was starring at him, suddenly falling on his rear. I could see Maddie raise an eyebrow at this. The master cleared his throat once more.

"Let us practice flip-kicks." He said softly. He seemed to be trying to keep confusion out of his voice. "Observe." He did a perfect kick-flip and landed, feet, solid on the ground. Maddie copied, doing almost as well. Danny, Jazz and I followed suite. I fell instantly; Jazz, also. Danny, though a tad clumsier, still did a remote kick-flip. But as he seemed to be getting better and better, before long, he looked like he was _trying_ to mess up. Eventually, it just looked like a well-executed kick-flip, a firm landing, and then an accent of 'bottom-to-ground action.' We all stared at him until he realized, once again, that he was being stared at, and fell on his rear once more, laughing innocently. This time, everyone rose eyebrows, except Jazz for some reason.

"He, ha…" He rubbed the back of his neck. "Um…"

"Danny, could I talk to you for a minute?" Jazz asked.

"Sure!" he sighed in relief. But as they went their way, master Keign-rowe motioned to us to have a word.

"I am most curious about this son of yours." He said, mostly to Maddie. "Has he had any training in the martial arts?"

"No… Actually, we just realized his talents in combat yesterday, and came here to test how much he could do." Maddie replied. Master Keign-rowe looked confused.

"I have been a teacher in the martial arts for many years now, and have never seen a student without previous training, adapt to such an advanced set so quickly." Maddie nodded.

"But how could he have these talents naturally."

"That's exactly my point." The master nodded back. I watched the conversation almost as an outsider. "Unless he is getting training in secret..."

"No…" Maddie interrupted, I mean I know he's been coming home late, and has lots of scars and bruises usually when he does but… It's random… I mean it has no schedule… It's not like he comes home like that every Tuesday and Wednesday. It's random… And… I trust him more than that… Besides, why would he hide something like that… there's no reason to… is there?"

**Chapter 4- Think fast!**

I sat there, thinking, sometimes looking across the room to where Danny and Jazz were bickering like a married couple I sighed gently. _What are they saying?_ I looked back to my wife, and her old master, Waiting for someone to talk, or something interesting to happen. Then, Jazz and Danny came back, both a bit exasperated. We decided, silently to test him once more.

"Now let's work on reflexes." Master Keign-rowe addressed us all at once. He started by passing a simple 'think fast' reflex test, where he would throw a basketball at us, and see how fast we could catch it. Jazz was first, and though a little startled with being thrown the ball so abruptly, she still caught it. Then me; I failed miserably, getting a sharp blow to the stomach, and partially winded. I took a few breathers, and after a couple of minutes of, "Are you okay?" I successfully caught the ball, though with the same, if not more, amount of being startled, as Jazz. Maddie caught it, and then a second, followed by a third in five seconds flat. Danny, caught two; the without any jolts of surprise, but the second, with a forced one seemingly because we started giving him funny looks.

Next, was the fly catch. The master would hold a fly in his hand, and we would have to catch it before it flew away. Maddie was used as an example for this one, as she was experienced. She tried for the first fly, and nearly got it, but missed. Taking a deep breath, she seemed to meditate for a few short seconds, catching the fly the second time around. She was obviously pleased with herself, proving this to be a very difficult task. Jazz was up next, failing as miserably as I did with the 'think fast' test, only without as much pain. It was my turn. I sat down and took a deep breath, then swatted or the fly, but it landed gently, right on the back of my hand. I took another deep breath, as the fly went back to master Keign-rowe's palm. I tried once more, but the fly dodged like magic. The master sighed, and nodded me away, as Danny took my place. He took a few breathers. Then he grabbed with a jolt. The fly was nowhere to be seen. He turned, quickly, eyes widened, staring strait as Jazz. Master Keign-rowe and Jazz also looked astonished, and wide eyed, but I could see Maddie trying to put one plus one together, then it hit me like an iron brick. He caught the fly, on the first try, without any said experience. My eyes widened with everyone else's, Maddie, who was still in a state of shock, finally, just gave up, and stared at Danny also. After a minute of awkwardness, Master Keign-rowe Finally collected himself, clearing his throat.

"Maddie, Jack, could I see you to the side again please?" We were taken out of our daze, and nodded. "We moved to the other side of the large room.

"Master, I… I… is that possible?" Maddie stuttered.

"No, that's what's confusing me the most. It is impossible for someone of his age to be that experienced unless he were trained since birth, which would make it impossible for him to get training in secret, since he probably didn't even know who he was at that point in time, including the fact that you've only witnessed his strange behavior for a couple months now. It is _also_ impossible to gain that much skill naturally. The only way he could learn that fast is through actual daily combat between him and an enemy, or a master with an unstable mind." Keign-rowe said.

"Unstable mind?" Maddie questioned.

"A master that attacks randomly without any logical reason." The master clarified.

Maddie gasped slightly, and then felt silent, probably thinking again. This gave me time to think as well. _How could he do it?_ I peaked over at Danny, who now opened his hand. The fly shot out. _He wouldn't be dumb enough to go to a master who was mentally unstable, but how would he face combat daily without getting on the news once and a while? There never were any 'masked figures' reported in the history of Amity Park. Battles that could give him that much practice couldn't be quaint slap fights. There is no possible way he could hide it from us long enough to fight like that._ It was so confusing. I could tell Maddie was thinking along the same lines.

"Maybe one more test will clarify this a little more." She said, not giving up.

"What would you recommend?" Master Keign-rowe asked with a small nod of respect.

"I would suppose a dodging test would do nicely." She said, smiling at the courtesy of the gentleman. We walked over to where the two kids sat, Danny, curled up, somewhat in a ball, and Jazz with her arm around him, whispering something in his ear; but as she saw us coming, she quickly jabbed Danny wither elbow. He uncurled, and stood up immediately, rubbing his arm where Jazz jabbed him.

"I think it was a lucky catch," he said, now rubbing the back of his neck, which he seemed to do mostly when he was nervous. The master just smiled gently.

"Very well, then, should we move on to the next, and final exercise, or do you want to try catching the fly one more time?" He asked Danny. Danny's eyes shifted to Jazz, his face panicked.

"Uhhh… Let's go to the next exercise." He mumbled.

"Right." Master Keign-rowe nodded once more, and started to address the whole family. "I believe for this one, I will have you all in separate rooms. You will each be responsible for your video camera, which will be in your room. The cameras will record everything. I will see nothing, unless you would like to show the tapes to me. You will decide what happens to your tape, and who sees it. All in all, this will not only base you on your physical skills, but also on your skills of knowing whom to trust. You will be tested on dodging." Danny grinned.

"So, if you don't want anyone to see it, no one will see it?" Danny questioned.

"Exactly." The master smiled. With nothing more said, the master lead us out of the large room, and back onto the common balcony. I almost forgot how beautiful it was, and how good it smelled. I followed, the group down two flights of stairs, and into another door. Inside, the exterior wall was a swirl of brown, white, and bright pink. It was a hallway though, with about twenty doors, all leading to their own, small, long cubical. We were all assigned to different rooms, were all leading to different rooms. Where we were told to stand outside our door and listen to the instructions.

"All right then," The master said to us. "Now, inside the door that you are about to enter, is a hallway. On the other side of the hallway is a door, but in front of the door is a shooting machine. It does not do anything dangerous. It just shoots lasers that tickle when they hit you. The shooter is heat sensitive, so it knows where you are. When it does not hit you for about ten shots, it will level you up. The levels get harder and harder. There is a camera in the room, that tapes everything you do, and at the end of your trial, the machine will shut down, and put the level you got to at the end of the tape. Then, you are free to exit. The exit door will only be unlocked, if something goes wrong, or the trial is over. When you exit, there is another room that has some activities for you to do until everyone is finished, it will also have a small electronic device, that when ejected, will give you the DVD of everything you've done in the room. When everyone is finished, you may all exit, No one will know who finished first; this is when the trust exercise begins. After this, you may meet me by the pond. A few additional things: If you are hit ten times, the machine will turn off, and you will exit the room; this will determine your trial time. Another thing is that, as soon as you close the door it will lock, and five seconds later, the shooter will start. Please, do not try to destroy the machine. Any questions?" He paused. "Very well then. Good luck." He bowed, and motioned to us to go into the rooms.

I opened, and the door. The hallway wasn't as wide as I'd hoped, but it wasn't too bad. It was just plain white. I heard a beeping noise and saw a green blast hit my leg. It tingled, and tickled just a bit. The there was another blast. I flattened myself against the wall. It only missed me by a hair. I went back into the middle of the room, and flattened against the wall once more when it shot. This time, it scraped me. I shot the machine a brief look of anger, before returning to the middle of the hall as it shot once more, I quickly flattened against the opposite wall, sucking it in. But that's when I heard a boom against the wall, like someone was stomping up it. The room next to me on that side was Danny's. I heard a blast go without hitting. And then:

"Aww… c'mon. This is lame!" I was too busy listening to realize I was getting hit. Another stomp on the wall, and more stomps on the ground went off almost simultaneously. And at the same time my machine charged down. I took my mind off the room next to me to the disappointment that I had been too preoccupied by listening to Danny's trial to succeed at my own.


	3. I FOUND IT!

a/n: I FOUND IT! AND NOW I'M SO INCREADIBLY HAPPY THAT I MIGHT FLY! AND DO A FEW BACK FLIPS, AND JUMP OFF A CLIFF ONLY TO MIRACULOUSLY RECOVER, BUT I WON'T CUZ I CAN'T, AND I DON'T FEEL LIKE DYING! SO INSTEAD, I'LL CELEBRATE WITH ANOTHER CHAPTER! BUT ONLY ONE, CUZ THERE ARE ONLY 8 CHAPTERS! ALL IN THE SAME, THANX FOR SUPPORTING ME, I ACTUALLY WAS GONNA REWRITE IT, BUT NOW I DON'T HAVE TO, CUZ I FOUND IT! AND I'M SO HAPPY, CUZ NOW I CAN WRITE MORE OF MY NEW STORY INSTEAD OF REWRITING THIS ONE! BUT I'LL STOP BLATHERING! ALL I WANNA SAY IS WHEEEEEEEEEEEE! YIPEE! I'll start off somewhere around where I left off for a recap:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I opened, and the door. The hallway wasn't as wide as I'd hoped, but it wasn't too bad. It was just plain white. I heard a beeping noise and saw a green blast hit my leg. It tingled, and tickled just a bit. The there was another blast. I flattened myself against the wall. It only missed me by a hair. I went back into the middle of the room, and flattened against the wall once more when it shot. This time, it scraped me. I shot the machine a brief look of anger, before returning to the middle of the hall as it shot once more; I quickly flattened against the opposite wall, sucking it in.

**Chapter 5- Cherry blossoms and a talk with Phantom**

The blast just barely missed me. I exhaled, before I heard a sharp stomp on the other side of the wall, and quickly inhaled once more, from surprise. I listened in again, as I heard many more wall stomps, as well as a few phrases of witty banter, that would probably make anyone but me shudder. As I was engrossed in listening to the voice on the other side of the wall, I didn't notice myself being hit. Then, before I knew it, the machine shut down, and a voice echoed through the hall, saying, "Level One." in a choppy voice. I exhaled slowly, with a disappointed slump; I trod over to the other side of the hall, and opened the door. Inside, was a book of crossword puzzles, a TV, and most importantly, fudge. I attacked the fudge so fast; that I swore more was forming on my plate. After I was done, I went to the TV. I searched through the channels, but there was nothing on, so I flipped through the crossword puzzle.

"OO! There's one on ghosts!" I said excitedly. I turned back a few pages to where I found it. _All right then, _I thought to myself. I read the first hint in my head. _An eight-letter word for a haunter, that's easy! A specter! _I chuckled to myself in vain. "Who's smart now?" I mumbled to the book. _A new theory of a half dead, half alive hybrid,_ "That's completely ridiculous! Why haven't I heard about this?" I sighed softly, and clicked my tongue at the person who came up with this puzzle. They obviously didn't know ghosts very well. I went to hint three, _town with most ghosts haunting to date. _That's easy! Amity Park! I wrote it in the boxes. The door opened, and Maddie entered the room.

"We're done," She said softly. I got up from the table, and the undone crossword, but I read one last hint. _Amity Park's ghost hero/ villain_, _Danny Phantom,_ I thought vainly. We walked out of the room, meeting the kids. Everyone had his or her videos. Maddie had mine. We all walked down to the small pond, and sat on benches, taking in the pleasant aroma of the cherry blossoms as we watched the petals fall. The pond wore freckles of petals, and the grass shown the same. I inhaled and exhaled slowly. (Bet that made you yawn. if it didn't, this will.) I yawned slowly, as my beautiful wife laid her head on me. I looked up to the canopy of redwoods. It was amazing. After about five minutes, Master Keign-rowe came once more. He looked as well rested as we were about to become.

"Hello," He greeted, bowing once more. "How were the tests?" He gave Maddie a look of utmost eagerness.

"I don't know," She replied, she looked to me.

"Uh, all right… I guess." I said, stumbling over the memories of how miserable I was at dodging. She looked to our children. Jazz smiled innocently.

"Uh… Same?" She said, in a tone of question. We looked to Danny; he shrugged casually.

"I… see." The master said. He looked a little disappointed in the lack of detail.

"Maddie, Jack, may I see you for a moment?" He moved away, motioning us to follow.

"I'm still worried about your son," he confessed. "You must try to see that video he has. It is of most importance to put some puzzle pieces together." He said.

"But, what if he doesn't give it to us?" Maddie asked.

"Then suspicions are heightened, and, though I hate to say it, you may have to steal it." He said, bowing his head in the pain of shunning honor. Maddie nodded, and left, me following at the rear. She suddenly stopped, and turned around, I barely kept my balance.

"Jack?" She started in a concerned tone, "I'm afraid." Her eyes teered a bit. "What if he has been keeping a secret from us, a really dangerous one." I patted her on the back.

"Now, hon, I don't think he'd do that, he's got your smarts," I consoled. She smiled up at me, and continued walking.

"C'mon, kids, its time to go," she said to them. They gave a teasing, "Awwwww…." But we were soon in the car, speeding down the highway, Maddie drove again.

"So wataya say we all watch each other's videos and have a huge laugh about it tonight?" I saw Danny's eyes widen in the rear view mirror.

"Huh?" He asked, hurriedly. Maddie's eyes seemed to narrow a hair.

"I mean, we can all trust each other, can't we?" She said, in an accusatory tone, probably more accusatory that she wanted it to be, but now, Danny's eyes were the ones narrowing.

"Well, yea, but do we really need to prove it?" He replied.

"No, but, it would be fun," She said innocently. Danny paused, staring out the window, pensively.

"But… I…" His face lit up for a split second, before his eyes narrowed once more. "Having your family laugh at you, because you hardly did anything before getting kicked out doesn't sound like 'fun' to me." He countered.

"Oh, but Danny, I did some pretty stupid things too, _It's silly to keep things from your own family_," She emphasized the last phrase.

"I just… I wouldn't feel good watching myself… mess up like that." He concluded. That was that. No one talked for the rest of the trip.

When we got home, we quickly departed to our own business.

Maddie and I retreated to the basement lab. Maddie was pacing, as I sat In a chair, and was once again consumed by the hypnotizing glow of the portal.

She started wording her thoughts.

"How'd this happen? Does Jazz know anything? I t wouldn't be right to go behind Danny's back, and steal the video. But what if it's hazardous to his health? He has been coming home with mysterious injuries. But he's smart enough to tell us if something goes wrong. But what if he doesn't even know?" I sighed, wishing I could just go upstairs and force the answer out of my son so Maddie didn't have to be tormented like this.

"I've made my decision," she said firmly, stopping her constant pacing. We went up to his room. He was at his friends' house, and wasn't expected home for another hour or so, but as we reached the top of the steps, we heard a loud bang from outside. We rushed out to see that we had stuck ourselves in the middle of a ghost battle between a white ghost in a tweed suit, and a cowboy hat, and Amity Park's own Danny Phantom.

I pulled out my ecto gun immediately, charging it, and getting a clear shot of the ghost boy. As this happened, the ghost boy pushed the other ghost back with an ecto ray and sucked it into… Did he have the Fenton thermos again? I shrugged it off quickly and concentrated on the task at hand.

"Your not getting away from me this time ghost boy!" But right when it was charged, and I was just about to regain all the respect a man could ever want, I heard my daughter call from her bedroom window.

"Dad! Wait! Stop! Please!" Phantom looked at me, then he looked at Jazz, and floated to the ground, keeping his hands up. I stood there, weapon still raised and aimed, baffled, as I had never seen this behavior in a ghost before. Obviously, my wife hadn't either, because she looked just as dumbstruck as I was. He moved slowly toward us, and as I realized him advancing, I raised my gun once more.

"Don't you come any closer, ghost kid," I said menacingly.

"Please!" He said in a voice that reminded me of someone, but I couldn't put my finger on it. "I need to talk. Peacefully."

"We don't have any business with you! You are evil!" Maddie said, raising her weapon once more.

"Please. I don't want to fight. I want to explain." We blinked at him, still baffled, as we let our guard down by accident. Ghost didn't want peace. It was a fact! His hands still raised, he had a serious expression on his face, but he could be acting.

"Why should we trust you?" I countered, trying to make his acting less convincing, but failing.

"Because… I trust you," He said plainly, face still serious. Now my gun, as well as Maddie's were dangling loosely by our sides.

"That's impossible!" Maddie murmured, almost too softly to hear.

"Fine, Phantom, you have five minutes, but if you so much as make one wrong move, we'll make the rest of your afterlife a living hell. And we promise that," I said.

"And we want to be able to ask questions before we are considered 'done,'" Maddie added. He nodded, and put his hands down slowly.

"First of all, I would like you to please not interrupt unless I'm done, or I let you. At the end, I will do the same, " He laid down these rules simply, without anything more.

"Second, well… I guess I'll get started. See, all those times that I've done things that were evil, I was either under mind control, or framed." He began. "I'm really not evil, and as much as you may not believe me, I try to protect this town every day… and I just want you to know that. Third, I'm not like other ghost in the sense that I'm not selfish or greedy. I don't want self-glory, revenge, and I don't have any dumb plots to take over the world. All I do is try to keep things in order. That's all I really need to say." We were still baffled that he didn't say "Fooled Ya!" and tried to blast us to smithereens yet, but it was our question period, and the last thing I wanted to do was miss asking all the questions zooming around in my head.

"So, why are you so human- like? How can you get that sort of feeling as a ghost? Helping is hardly possible for a ghost to comprehend," Maddie asked.

"I'm not the kind of ghost you see every day… in fact, there's only one, maybe two, like me in the world, and at least one of them is evil." He stated.

"So what would you classify yourself as?" I cut in.

"I have no clue." He said.

"What are the other reasons you might be separated from other ghosts?"

"I eat, sleep, most of the time, I breath, and I have a very, none obsessive, short attention span."

"One last question." Maddie said. "I really don't know why I thought of this, just a gut feeling that I should mention it…" She said. "When you died, did you ever find your parents again? Do they know your there?"

"Yes, and at the same time, no." He said plainly.

"What do you mean?" You could see his mind zoom, as his eyes darted to different spots on the sidewalk.

"I'm… invisible to them… I guess…" We both looked at him pensively, as he looked at us with a nervous smile.

"Is that it?" He said suddenly.

"Ummm… yea, I guess so," I said, glancing at Maddie.

"So… It wasn't a trick?" She asked. Phantom looked at her with a small bit of shock, but then changed to a sigh, mid breath, which made a weird kind of wiring sound.

"No…" He said in a flat tone.

"One more question!" I said quickly. I had just thought of it. He looked at me, his expression was changing again.

"How do you disappear whenever, even on radar, and then just pop up in places when there's a ghost around?" You could see him inhale rapidly as he found out what I was going to ask.

"Um…I'm afraid I can't answer that, it's my own secret." He said, feebly.

"But you promised," I said.

"But some things are worth looking for to find the answer, however, small things like this, are best to just keep unbothered," He advised, and like a rocket, he was off. I watched him go until the buildings covered his silhouette against the orange, evening sky. I shook my head for no reason but to straiten my own thoughts. It just seemed to jumble them up more.

END OF CHAPTER

Now that I'm calmer, I'd like to thank you all for supporting this fic, I hope it's almost as much of a relief to you, as it is to me, because we get to finish it faster. As for me, I'm off to finish my next story, and update this one, as well as read your reviews for this one. And when I'm done with the next one, I'll do the same! Hope you enjoy the rest of the story! Please R&R!


	4. OGod! read this! read this!

**OMG! How many mistakes will I make! I can't seem to think strait anymore! Well, anyway. I skipped a vital chapter. Chapter 6. And now, I have to ask you guys to take a step back in your minds. This might make the next chappy much more sensible. Thank you to Lupe191919! Thanx! Cuz otherwise, the story makes no sense! **

**CHAPTER 6- Getting the hunch**

When we back in the house, Maddie started to make dinner, and I went down to the lab to try out a new invention, but as Maddie had to wait for the soup to sit, she called me up for a talk, we obviously both needed to talk things out.

"Something is wrong here," She started, as we sat down on the couch.

"But how?" I continued for her, "How does he do it?"

"Why didn't he attack us?" She thought out loud. We stayed there for a few moments in silence, our own thoughts taking up full brain capacity. Jazz came in and noticed our odd disposition.

"Mom, Dad?" She addressed us. We looked up, parting from our deep concentration. "What are you guys doing?"

"We just had a chat with the ghost boy, and…" I cut myself off. "Hey, you were the one who stopped us from attacking!" I recalled.

"Hey! You were!" Maddie realized.

"Um…" She backed up. "Well, one time, he um… saved me, and you know how I've been trying to convince you guys that he might not be evil, and so… I, um, talked with him recently, and, um, we sort of planned it." I looked at her, but other than stuttering, she seemed completely honest. She was actually telling the truth.

"You mean to say that you actually have ties with the ghost boy and you didn't even tell us!" Maddie almost yelled, her face turning red.

"Um… yea," she said, looking down, and kicking the carpet.

"Does Danny know?" I asked. I knew they were rather close lately.

"Um…" She stumbled again, looking extremely indecisive. "Yea." She concluded. If Maddie was pink before, she was absolutely blood red now.

"Daniel James Fenton!" She screamed. You could hear something heavy drop to the ground from upstairs, and then a very annoyed call of:

"Ye-es!" coming back down to our ears.

"Come down here right now!" I looked to Maddie, I wanted to calm her down, but last time she was this mad… well, I knew it best not to get on her bad side. Danny ran down the stairs, sliding a little at the bottom, before rushing to the living room, and standing strait right next to Jazz. "Why didn't you tell us you had ties with Phantom!" She screamed at them. Then she was silenced showing she was actually waiting for an answer.

"Really, it was as if I hardly knew I did," Danny said, looking to Jazz with his eyebrows lowered, and his look, disapproving.

"Why didn't you tell us anything!" She yelled, the color of her face receding just a little. She stopped, waiting once again.

"We knew you guys wouldn't listen," Jazz reasoned.

"That's better than lying to us!" She yelled, her color receding a tad more.

"We're sorry," Jazz said quietly. Now Maddie wasn't so red anymore. She sat down and lay on my shoulder.

"It's okay," she said in a tired voice, that was completely opposite from the tone she had just a minute ago. "Just sit down and tell me all you know about the ghost boy. I trust you will tell me the truth," She said, her voice still tired and on a slight monotone. At her saying this, I swear I could see Danny's eye twitch a couple times before he sat down in front of us with Jazz.

"Alright…" Maddie began, "Start telling." They looked at each other with worried expressions.

"Well, I don't really know much about him. Just that he's a cool dude who protects the town… I guess?" He said in an undecided tone. He looked at Jazz.

"Well, he's a um… an um…" She stumbled, "He saved me, and I watched him fight other ghosts…" Maddie's expression turned to worry, so Jazz decided to add: "From a safe distance…" And then continued with tripping over her words, "And He's um… a great guy… who… loves the city?" She said. For some reason, she seemed to point her questioning tone at Danny. Danny smiled nervously.

"That's it?" I asked. "Don't you at least know where he goes so that we can't find him?"

"No…" Danny muttered.

"Alright, that's all then, just be warned about messing with ghosts," She admonished. "Now go up to bed." I thought I heard Danny mutter something about irony under his breath while he walked away, but it must have been my imagination.

That night, I went to bed, only to be woken up by Maddie.

"We have to watch that tape!" She said in a worried, yet excited manner. I rolled over, half asleep.

"But teddy doesn't want to," I said, using the stuffed bear I was hugging as an excuse.

"Oh, grow up and c'mon," She said, pulling the covers off me. I groaned and after a couple tries, managed to get up. I rubbed my eyes. Quietly, Maddie snuck into the room and looked for the DVD. I stood outside the door and waited. I couldn't 'sneak around' very easily. Once she was out, she showed me the DVD, and we quietly went downstairs and slipped it into the DVD player. We watched with open mouths as we saw our son do things we didn't even think were possible. Walking up walls to do a back flip and hit the floor in a Spiderman squat. Jump about five feet up, and stick between the walls with his legs. It was full of endless surprises; and at the end, his final level was seventy. I looked at Maddie, my jaw still hanging loosely in shock. She looked at me in the same manner.

"I've only ever gotten up to level sixty-five…" she confessed under her breath.

"How do you learn something like that?" I asked myself. However, Maddie answered.

"I… Don't know…" We were silent, and slowly, we drifted away, exhausted by the many events that went on that day, we fell asleep peacefully, together on the couch.

The next day, I went right to work on a tracking device. The next time I found Phantom, I was going to be prepared to get at least one of my question answered, select from the many I thought would never get answered. And so, after a normal day of hardly any food, or sleep, I finally finished my invention; and just in time for a surprise; because that very afternoon, as I was showing the invention off to my wife, we got a ghost warning from Casper High. I quickly took up the Fenton bazooka, my wife by my side. We were soon at our children's school, where everyone was outside in an orderly fashion.

The first thing we did was making sure our kids were all right.

"Jazz!" Maddie said, grabbing her shoulders tightly. "Where's Danny!" She looked to us in a worried sort of way.

"Umm… ask Sam and Tucker," She said quickly. So without delay, we searched through the crowd to find Sam and Tucker. We finally found them on the other side of the yard.

"Sam, Tucker, Where's Danny?" Maddie said with exhaustion. We had rushed all this way. They both took a quick glance at the building before returning their attention to us. "He went to the bathroom," Tucker said, referring to Danny's excuse for skipping class, and pointing to the building.

"In there!" Maddie shrieked with worry. They nodded, and she instantly pulled me to the school.

As we entered the building, we immediately saw the problem. There was a ghost fight in the entrance hall between a chubby, blue ghost, (who was controlling the lockers,) and none other than Danny Phantom. I quickly flicked the homing chip on Phantom before making my presence noticed.

"Get lost ghost fiend!" I said, pointing the bazooka at the chubby, blue ghost. The ghost just said:

"Beware!" and sped off. Leaving the lockers to drop on the floor. I blinked before giving a disappointed:

"Awww…" and slumped away. I was almost out the door, Maddie patting me on the back, when the ghost boy's one word was heard.

"Thanks," He said. I smiled and turned around to reply, but no one was there anymore. Then I remembered Danny. I ran to the bathroom, and burst in, but a flash of light blinded me for a moment as I made my appearance.

"Danny! Are you okay? What was that flash?" Danny peered out of the bathroom stall.

"What flash?" He asked, seeming oblivious.

"That blinding flash that made everything white for a second."

"I don't know what your talking about… have you seen an eye doctor lately?" I sighed, and put my hand on his shoulder. I had to shrug this off for now, but later, I needed it vivid and fresh in my mind.

"Never mind," I said softly.


	5. Second to last chappy already!

**Chapter 7- Maybe, just maybe… No!**

I pondered what I had seen in the bathroom, while in the passenger's seat on the way home. Maddie still wouldn't let me drive.

_How could this be? What am I missing here? Do they know something I don't?_ I glanced back at my kids, who were fiddling with their thumbs and looking down at the floor. School had been cancelled for the rest of the day to get the lockers back in order. I saw Danny heave a big sigh, and lean back in his seat, now looking up at the ceiling. We soon got home, and went our separate ways. Maddie went off to a yoga class. The kids went up to their rooms. Jazz probably went up to read, as I always catch her doing when I walk into her room, and Danny… to think, most likely, or go on the computer… I'm not really sure what he does in his room, because whenever I burst in, he seems to just be lounging on his bed. Me, I went to the living room for a good long train of thought to arrive in my mind. But as I sat down, I heard bangs from outside, and then, heard something down in the lab.

"Let go of me!" came my son's voice from the basement. _But… he was up in his room just a second ago! I never saw him go downstairs… Why would he be saying 'let go of me?' HE MUST BE IN TROUBLE!_ As soon as I thought this, I ran downstairs, completely missing the fact that my son/s voice was echoing. As I reached the stairs, I saw a ghost fly into the wall. It was a gelatinous form. But as I continued down the stairs, bazooka at hand, Danny wasn't there, but an exhausted Ghost Boy instead. This was the first time I actually listened as he threw the ghost onto the zone and yelled, "And stay in there!" This was the first time I noticed how much he sounded like my son; and looked it for that matter. I took one more step onto a creaky stair, which made Phantom's head wheeled around faster than a child on a rolling office chair. I smiled sheepishly, and he took off through the ceiling like a rocket. I heard heavy feet upstairs, and ran up to look outside, maybe track where he was going, but then I remembered my tracking device. I slapped my forehead. I was going to calm down, but there was another blinding light from upstairs. I followed it up stairs to see that it had come from Danny's room. When he opened the door, he looked as exhausted as the ghost boy was when he went through the ceiling.

"Dad, what are you doing in front of my room?" He asked, a bit unnaturally.

"Oh, nothing, I just imagined that bright light again… I guess I do need to get my eyes checked…" I lied convincingly. He shrugged and went downstairs. I couldn't believe it. For the first time in my life, I had fooled someone while lying! It's amazing! But after a quick pat on the back from me to me, I had to get back to work. Why, whenever Danny was somewhere after a ghost attack, was there a blinding light. I had to tell Maddie.

"Maddie!" I yelled for her. "Can I see you for a minute?" She was quick top run upstairs.

"What is it, Honey?" She asked in a cheery voice.

"Could we go down to the lab? I have a thought about Danny," I stated. Her grin lessened to a slight smile.

"Alright, then…" She hastened me down the stairs, Her smile still slowly disappearing.

"So, what's going on?" She questioned when we got to the lab.

"Well, at the attack at the school, I went into the bathroom, but before I saw Danny, there was a bright flash of light, and then He walked out. I don't know what's going on… But then I heard a voice from like Danny's, but It sounded like he was being attacked! So I went down to help him, and it was Phantom! He shoved a ghost into the portal, and then he saw me, and rushed through the ceiling. So I went upstairs, and tried to follow him, because at this point, so much was going on, that I forgot about the homing device, and followed my instincts. But when I reached the door, I remembered the homing chip, and after a slight slap on the head from being genuinely stupid, I turned around, and saw a flash coming from Danny's room, and Danny walked out looking as exhausted as Phantom did!" I finished, Maddie staying with me, and listening, the whole time. _Man, I love this woman!_ I thought to myself. Then she started.

"Jack, I don't know… Maybe it was just a trick of the light."

"But I told you! It happened three times! And that still doesn't explain the voice!"

"You've got me there…" She confessed, "But what could a relation be between Danny and the ghost boy, other than there voice." We thought for a moment.

"Well, They talk the same, as in… Style wise…" I reasoned.

"And they have the same hair and facial structure, come to think of it…" She mumbled.

"Do you think that's enough to prove something?" I asked both her, and myself.

"I don't know…" She said. "What could we prove with something like that…" I felt something swish behind me, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.

"Ghost!" I yelled, assuming the worst, and bringing out my faithful bazooka.

"Jack, calm down," Maddie said, putting her hand on my shoulder. "It was probably just a cold waft of air," She explained, practically reading my thoughts on what just went on.

"Yea," I agreed subconsciously, while looking behind me. Do you think… Phantom might have a relation to our son?" Maddie asked, her eyes widening with every word.

"How could that b… unless… unless he found a way to make a clone of himself through ectoplasm!" I heard something behind me like stifled laughter. I turned around and the laughter quickly stopped, but it was disembodied.

"What was that?" Maddie worded my thoughts. _Oh, good, I'm not going crazy._ I thought.

"I don't know…" I said, and after a few moments Maddie seemed to remember what we were talking about.

"Anyway… Ectoplasm copies would only solve how they look alike. It wouldn't describe the behavior. Maybe we should try to find something about these flashes you've been seeing. We went to the computer. And looked up some articles on white flashes. Most of it was junk. We had to look through hours of websites for cameras, and other nonsense, and two hours later, we decided we weren't getting anywhere, and our best bet was probably to go to the library, and get some newspaper articles. When we got there, there was a whole section near the newspaper articles purely of clip out articles of Danny Phantom. Donated by some anonymous kid. I looked through the articles, and found my first target:

"Ghost boy found!" It read. _Good. Let's start from the beginning,_ I thought. I skimmed the article until the last paragraph.

"_And there was a white flash, and he was gone!" Says witness, Dan Trumpet._

I put the page aside, anxious to find out more accounts of this attack. The next article had nothing about white flashes, but the one after it did. It had several people claiming their points of view; all stating a blinding, white flash following the ghost boy, and then nothing.

"A blinding flash of white or light blue."

"A white flash that drowned out my vision."

"A light blue array of light."

The clippings pile of 'Flashes found' piled up, while the other pile with nothing about the sudden lighting changes stayed at two or three. I finally found a fascinating report, where 'Bert Trundel' (Whoever he is) got close enough to this flash, to see its source; a bright ring forming around the ghost boy's waist, before his German shepherd quickly pulled him away. Maddie looked up at me after reading this article.

"Does this all describe what you saw when Danny came out of the bathroom stall?" She questioned. I nodded slowly.

"Jack…" She said slowly. "I don't know… look what I found," She said. She gave m the clipping that she was reading. "Kids in hospital claim to have had Ghost Powers!" the clipping read. I looked at it for a bit, and remembered when the kids were all infected, and when the kids explained, they said they saw kids with ghost powers. We had shrugged it off at the time, but now, it seemed that maybe… it could be possible.

"Jack? Do you think it's possible for a human to have ghost powers?" She asked slowly.

"No…" I shrugged it off, no way!" I dismissed. I looked down to read the next article, but I could see, out of the corner of my eye, Maddie still looking thoughtful, and worried.

After more searching, I found an article on the crash that happened a month ago, the reason why my wife wouldn't let me drive anymore.

"CRASH! Ghost boy involved!" I read through the article, disbelieving some of the eyewitnesses, because they recall a boy, Danny, being in the car, but in a flashy of light, he disappeared, and Danny Phantom came. They said that Danny Phantom had fought a weird black ghost, and then was found carrying me and not Danny, home. _But Danny said he was carried home, too! _This article was scary, and at that, I couldn't stand it any longer. There was one piece of the puzzle that I was missing! I just couldn't think of it! _What was that one thing that related Danny, and Phantom, and could explain the bright flashes, and the newspaper clippings, and everything? What was possibly there to understand?_ Could people actually have ghost powers?

END OF CHAPTER 7

Well? Whadaya think? Good, Bad? The next chapter is the last one, which is a pity, because I'm not done with my next story yet… O well, that's my problem. Please R&R! Thanx for reading, and I'll see ya in the next chappy!


	6. Finally Dun DUN!

**Chapter 8- the truth… Wow.**

_Could people really have ghost powers?_ I needed to think, but I was tired of doing that. And yet, I had to.

"Jack? Did you use the homing chip yet?" She asked, still skimming an article, and tossing it in the positive pile. I blinked. No, I still hadn't used the homing chip yet.

"Well, no," I confessed. She looked up, blinking.

"Well then use it!" She hastened. I searched my pocket for the device that controlled the homing chip, and after a few minutes, I found it. Hey, It's a big pocket. As I took the device out, I took a deep breath, and pressed the 'on' button. In seconds, a flashing red light appeared on the town map.

"Honey…" I addressed Maddie, still studying the screen. "The ghost boy is in our kitchen, searching through our cupboards." Her eyes widened.

"Well, then lets go!" She said quickly, but still in a confused trance. We got up, and started running, still confused to a maximum level. _What was the Ghost Boy's business searching through our kitchen cupboards?_ The library was a short walk away from our house. In fact, it was only two blocks. And when you're walking, it takes about five minutes. When you're running, three minutes; when you're sprinting, one minute. We started jogging, but since we figured it probably wasn't going to take that long for Phantom to do what he wants, and leave, we thought it best to start sprinting. When we burst into the kitchen however, we found Danny, sitting at the table, with some cookies, looking up at us.

"Um… hi?" He said, with a quizzical expression. I looked down at the tracking monitor. It showed a beeping, red dot, just where my son was sitting. _Did Phantom give the tracking device to Danny?_

"Um… Danny? Have you seen the Ghost Boy lately?" I asked calmly. He raised an eyebrow.

"Not since…" He hesitated, as if in deep concentration. "Not since the school attack," He recalled. "Why?"

"Well, He seems to have given you something," I said sheepishly.

"What do you mean? I haven't seen him since the attack!" He said, a little too quickly for comfort. I walked around to the back of Danny, while he exchanged looks with his mother. Then I saw it; the little tracking device on the back of his neck.

"How did he get it off? How does it stick?" I wondered out loud. That little thing was made to attach to a ghost like crazy glue. Only a human could get it off of the ghost. Also, I built it so it could not stick to humans. It would just slide right off the skin. I went upstairs to the bedroom to think again, leaving a weirded-out Danny behind as Maddie rushed after me.

"What is it?" My wife asked, entering the room.

"The tracking device was on the back of his neck," I stated in the dismay of my thoughts.

"But that's impossible. The device doesn't stick to human beings." She reasoned.

"I know," I replied. Then my mind came to something. a vivid, different something that was so Alien to me that I shivered in its wake.

"Honey?" Maddie tried to snap me back to life.

"Maddie…" I started. "Do you think… Our son may be… Half Ghost?" I stumbled over the thought of it.

"Sweetie, That's sil…" She cut herself off, paling. "Ya- Ya think?" She asked, with a worried expression.

"Well, it would explain everything from the very beginning, wouldn't it.

How Phantom brought me home, but there were no witnesses of Danny, How Phantom uses Fenton equipment so often, How they have the same voices…"I listed. Maddie continued.

"How Danny always shows up with bruises, how he can do so many tricks so easily."

"How they have the same structure, and hairstyle… It just makes sense." I finished. And before thinking, the next few words escaped my lips in a tone of a yell.

"DANNY! Come up here please!" Oh, boy, had I done it! What were we going to say now? Maddie stared at me wide eyed. Soon enough we hear feet climbing up the stairs. I bowed my head in shame, the guilt all rushing to me now. I never paid any attention to my kids. Maybe if I had, I would have noticed this a long time ago. The doorknob turned, and a face came peaking in. I looked up.

"I didn't do it!" He said quickly. I couldn't help but give a small smile. But something was different about Danny. I saw something else. But it wasn't him, as much something in him. I couldn't tell what it was, but I knew, somehow, that whatever it was, it was about to change.

"No. We did," Maddie said. "We thought of something; a theory. We need to test it. All we need you to say is true, or false." He looked at her, confusion in his eye. "Are you… the Ghost Boy?" His face changed rapidly. You could feel his heart pound, as his expression turned to panic. It was like that for a good minute before he calmed down. He bowed his head, and closed his eyes.

"True," He whispered, softly, but audible. We both looked at him. We looked at him with blank faces. But I could see it now. That thing inside him had changed, but for the better. Whatever it was, it looked stronger. I knew what would have to happen. I smiled.

"Well, Why didn't ya tell us!" I boomed. He looked up, the confusion in his eyes came back to him.

"What?" He asked.

"I said, why didn't you tell us!" I stated, cheerfully. I put my hand on his shoulder, and then pulled him into a tight hug. Maddie was still sitting on the bed, blankly. She sat there for another few seconds before a big smile spread across her face. She ran up, and joined the hug. We had to get the doubt out of our minds.

A few moments later, we pulled away from the hug. And you could see in Danny's face, that it would, in good time, be time for questioning, but right now, we needed to give him all the support we could. I kept my arm around him, and turned him around toward the door. "What do you say we talk this over in the kitchen over some Hot Chocolate?" I said, as we started down the hall. He smiled up at me, a new twinkle in his eye. I smiled back. "So, What kind of neat powers do you have?" I asked. He started to explain. I listened intently. There was a smell of change in the air that day. I from that day on, I became much more loving of a father. I tried to learn all I could about my son, and my daughter. Someday, maybe I'll have grand kids. Ghosts are a huge part of this family. They seem to bring us into the strangest bonding experiences. But, I learned that day, that that is the only thing ghosts could ever be. And when I went to bed at night, right before I went to sleep. I didn't think of ripping ghosts limb from limb anymore. I thought of this:

_My daughter ran to me, her big, blue eyes aglow. Her backpack drooped to her ankles._

"_Daddy!" She said playfully. "Daddy! Where's my little brother!" I picked her up lovingly, and kissed her on her forehead in the same place where her hair used to swirl. _

"_We have to go to the hospital and see him!" I told her, bopping her on the nose gently with my finger. She giggled and got in her car seat. Hugging her Bearbert Einstein. We got to the room with hast, and gently opened the door. Maddie looked up from her bead, a Baby cradled in her arms. My daughter rushed over with no hesitation. _

_"Awww! He's s so CUTE!" She said, pulling back the blanket from the infant's face. I walked up, and looked at my new baby boy. His already raven hair was swirled on his forehead. I picked him up carefully, cradling him. _

_"That's my boy," I whispered, softly. "That's my precious baby boy." I swayed slowly back and forth, and right before I handed him back to his mother, I kissed him right in the middle of that little black swirl._

The End

Well, that's the end. Thank you for sticking with me to the end! I hope you enjoyed it! R&R! PLEEEAAASSSSSEEEE!


End file.
